We are a low-income Title 1 elementary school, which means we are one of many schools in which children from low-income families make up at least 40% of enrollment. We provide 60% of our students with free and reduced lunches. I work specifically in special education with students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Most of the services I provide are done in a pull-out resource room model. I have a wide range of students with diagnosed disabilities, including specific learning disabilities, health impairments, multiple disabilities, autism, and emotional behavioral disabilities.
As a special education teacher, you got to love paperwork compliance!
We make copies upon copies every day of very important and private documents. In order to comply with the district requests, we also strive to get parents all the copies and information they need before they walk out of the IEP meeting. Unfortunately, because we live in such a small low-income community, our special education budget really struggles to keep up with these types of needs.
My Project
I am striving to improve the school lives and experience of not just my students, but also our families of children in special education! I'd also like to continue doing whatever I can to involve my students in their IEP and progress towards their goals.
It's already hard enough for parents to comprehend the amount of information and paperwork that comes along with a young child with an IEP.
I am focusing on doing whatever I can do to streamline that process. Parents deserve nothing less than to fully understand the IEP team's process and have the clear documentation that they need. Not only that, but as special education teachers, we also have to remain compliant with paperwork and timelines.
In order to make a difference in my student's involvement in the IEP process, I'd like to more consistently provide them with copies of their IEP goals and their progress towards meeting them. The student's and I talk a lot about the goals that the people who love them set for them, but they don't always fully understand this. A lot of the time, their goals and progress are constantly changing!
It's basically impossible to keep track of how many copies and documents I print every week. Additionally, as mentioned previously, the paperwork that I print is extremely private and protected. That is why I am asking for donations for this compact copy machine for our special education classroom to ensure that the students and parents have updated copies of everything they need before, during, and after an IEP meeting.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. S. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.